Editorial

REVIEW: ‘The Pacific’ Is A Great War Mini-Series, Isn’t Nearly As Good As ‘Band Of Brothers’

The Pacific (Credit: Screenshot/YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e99B80crU3E)

David Hookstead Sports And Entertainment Editor
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I finally watched “The Pacific,” and it’s absolutely a great war mini-series.

For those of you who don’t know, “The Pacific” was another HBO production done by the same team that did the iconic WWII series “Band of Brothers.” (RELATED: Watching ‘Band Of Brothers‘ Never Gets Old. Here’s Why It’s Such A Great Series)

While “BoB” focused on the airborne in Europe, “The Pacific” focused on the Marines fighting the Japanese on the other side of the world.

There were a lot of things I liked about this series, but there were also some noticeable drawbacks compared to “BoB.”

First, let’s get into the positives to “The Pacific.” One of the best things about it is that it shines a light on the less focused on theater of WWII.

We all love talking about how we beat the Nazis, but we don’t talk nearly as much about how we defeated the Japanese and what the Marines did.

“The Pacific” is hands down the best content I’ve ever seen about the war against Japan, and there isn’t a close second.

It’s raw, it’s brutal, it doesn’t romanticize the war at all and it shows the unreal sacrifices the Marines made throughout the region to defeat Japan.

The action scenes are simply incredible, and they’ll keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. It also shows the mental wear the war had on the Marines.

However, there were some problems. Unlike “BoB,” this mini-series jumps all over the place. There’s time spent in Australia, there’s time spent in a hospital and there’s time spent back in America.

In my opinion, this really killed momentum at times, and it’s the biggest negative against the series. “Band of Brothers” focused on a straightforward storyline, and it kept you engaged.

With “The Pacific,” you never feel like you really get to know the characters. In “BoB” you felt like you were with them every step of the way.

You felt invested in their pain, their stories, their lives and for many, their deaths. The ending scene is also pretty weak.

While we had the iconic baseball scene at the end of “BoB,” we just see a bunch of pictures telling us what happened to everybody.

Overall, I give “The Pacific” a solid 8/10, but it’s not even close to “Band of Brothers.” They’re not close at all.

The difference can be boiled down to this: “The Pacific” will be remembered as a great series. “Band of Brothers” will be remembered as the greatest WWII series.

Either way, you should watch it if you haven’t already.